Mayara Tavares: The debate over the 'Obama looking at girl' photo

(Image credit: Maurizio Bambatti/EPA/Corbis)

last updated 8 January 2015

"I'm a little disappointed that our president is a bit of a pig," said Michele McGinty in BeliefNet. The photo currently making the rounds on the Internet and on TV clearly shows President Obama checking out a girl—Mayara Tavares, 16, of Brazil—at the G8 conference. After close scrutiny of the "Obama looking at a girl" photo, the only thing that can be said in the president's defense is that he wasn't leering as badly as French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The "Obama looking at girl" photo certainly looks bad, said Lynn Sweet in the Chicago Sun-Times. But if you look at ABC News' video, you can see what President Obama was really doing as Mayara Tavares—who was identified by some news outlets as Mayora Tavares—walked by. "Conclusion: Obama was not looking; Sarkozy maybe."

The video does appear to absolve the American president in "O-bum-a-gate," said Germany's Bild.com. The real cad caught in the "Obama looking at girl" photo is Nicolas Sarkozy. The video shows President Obama looking down not at the behind of Mayara Tavares, or Mayora Tavares, but at the hand of another young delegate he is helping down a step where the youth delegates posed with leaders for a group photo. Obama wasn't checking out a girl, but the video doesn't look good for the leering Sarkozy.